The Chosen One and The Silver Rose
by BookPrincess32
Summary: Revenge was what drove one girl to Salem, proposing a dubious offer. When Ash heard a prophecy in his dream, he realized something was not right with the world and his team decided to intervene with three actions in a bid for an alliance with the mysterious girl. Ruby knows that she would need help in facing the inevitable war, but could she really trust Ash and his team?
1. The Beginning

**BP: I don't really watch RWBY, but I got bored and decided to write a crossover of it with Pokémon and I only depend on the wiki for information so it may not be accurate. I'm not sure why it's a good idea, but take it as a therapy of sorts, since well, everyone was reeling from Volume 7 (although I probably don't feel the weight of it, because I didn't actually watch it so I only know bits and pieces) **

**Obviously, I'll bring back the characters from the PAL series, who originates from the Pokémon World and obviously Aura would work different for the Pokémon characters and I'll be taking how it works from the original. However, I made some changes to the background of certain characters and adding Genesis (N. Aepic Fael's characters) to the story. **

**For those who have read my PAL Series you obviously know how much PAL's abilities and authority extends to, so for the sake of this story, I actually have thought up of the antagonists they will face as opposed to Salem from RWBY, whom I'll leave to Ruby and the others. Don't worry, the main character from Pokémon is still Ash. So, yes, there are some elements from the original series, like his background for instance. **

**Anyway, I am feeling in a foul mood by my former classmates who make fun of MY writing and the kind of stories I write, it was so bad I actually deleted that story so they'd shut up. They cling to the past and talk about what I did in the past and not about themselves. How immature. **

**Also, it's difficult to go out due to the coronavirus, so I'm stuck at home literally and I'm asked to put a hold to my job applications. **

For most people, the world around us is all there is, and we believe that whatever we can sense from our five senses was all there is. It's the same for capabilities and potential. We see the most powerful person as the goal we want to meet, and may think we aren't capable of more, because in that world, we would have been put in the highest pedestal in terms of abilities.

However, what people do not know was that there is a lot more there to the world and universe around us. Different worlds, where you may only be considered average compared to the people inhabiting it. Different world with completely different cultures and mechanics compared to your own. In that world, there may be even people who could do things you would never imagine, such as dimension travelling or even resurrecting people.

It does open up possibilities, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it'll open up doors for those who may use it for nefarious plans, for malicious intent.

And she was one of them.

At first glance, she may seem like the innocent teenage girl that you would overlook, or even given a polite smile and say hello if you see her at a grocery store or something with waist-long black hair with hot pink and an outfit that consisted of a white skirt and a hot pink jacket along with knee-length boots.

The place she was trudging through was a contrast to her appearance, as it looked like a barren wasteland, with rocky terrain and large purple crystals sprouting from the ground, and the sky was an abnormal red. She did not seem fazed by the creatures spawning from a tar-like pool, as she clutched to a book with a star like symbol in a circle. She approached the figure who had her back turned to her.

As she drew closer, the figure spoke, and turned around to show a woman whose skin is a deathly pallor, with jet black sclerae in her eyes, and glowing crimson irises. Instead of being perturbed by the intruder, she seemed intrigued.

"I usually can figure out the name of every soul that has ever lived, and died, and ever will…yet I do know yours, girl. Explain." The immortal woman said softly, tone not betraying her feelings.

"Lady Salem. I am Rosaline Pyra, and I am not of this world. Mine is a universe beyond your reach, where the people there have powers that work similarly, yet much more powerful and versatile. I can give them to you." Rosaline replied.

"And what is it you seek in return?" Salem asked, not bothering to ask how Rosaline knew about her.

"Revenge. More live now than have ever died, in my universe, as in yours. They denied me my right to my position, when I gave them everything." Rosaline said, anger bubbling the surface.

"So, you want them dead…what can you offer me?" Salem enquired.

"I can give you a way to get more members for your faction. You would definitely need them to take on the people in my dimension." Rosaline knelt down, and offered the book she was clutching.

Salem walked over and took the book, flipping through it. She gave a small smile and said, "Very well. What do you propose?"

"A union — our two universes, reborn as one. They will never see this crisis coming." Rosaline said eerily.

"Such an undertaking will require lots of power." Salem noted.

"I have that covered." Rosaline claimed. "It would cost me my life, but it would be enough to do the deed. All I ask is for you to destroy not just your world, but mine too. They are too conceited to see what I could do to help them."

"Very well. Are you going to do it now?" Salem gave the girl a smile. She had so much potential as a member of her faction, but if she could do what she claimed…

Rosaline nodded. She'd do anything to take PAL's/Genesis' Sweetheart Pakura Ameyuri down for good. She didn't care whose blood will be spilled, as long as one of them was hers.

* * *

"_The unison of two worlds, eventually tipping the balance of life and death is the spark needed to push two worlds into war. Through this tough time, the Chosen One can end the war only with the help of a silver-eyed Rose. Alone the Chosen will fail, with the situation being Grimm. Chosen One, find the Rose and combine her treasures for Judgement Day."_

A young man with broad shouldered and lean frame, brown eyes and neck-length hair with the fringe combed down and some tips of his hair sticking out slightly woke up in a panic. "Who said that?" he exclaimed, before realizing it was a dream.

"**Something wrong, Ash?" **Pikachu had asked from beside him. Lucario was also waking up, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"I heard a prophecy. I am going to wake the others up." Ash said grimly.

A few minutes later, everyone had gathered at the dining table of the mansion in the Genesis region, fully dressed but each of them had varying degrees of sleepiness on their faces. One of them was in the kitchen making breakfast for everyone.

"This had better be good." A guy with black hair with fringe combed to one side and amber eyes grumbled.

"I'm very sorry to interrupt your sleeping, Jude." Ash replied. "However, I can't help but hear a prophecy and feel that this will be related to what would come next?"

"Arceus gave you a prophecy?" A boy with brown hair and baby blue eyes was surprised.

"While I was asleep." Ash answered. "That's why I want to look into it, as I felt a change, but I can't quite put my finger into it. Problem is, the prophecy is vague, it'll be a bit difficult to decipher."

"Sure, but we'll need to know exactly what the prophecy said." A bespectacled handsome boy with black hair and violet eyes pointed out.

"The unison of two worlds, eventually tipping the balance of life and death is the spark needed to push two worlds into war. Through this tough time, the Chosen One can end the war only with the help of a silver-eyed Rose. Alone the Chosen will fail, with the situation being Grimm. Chosen One, find the Rose and combine her treasures for Judgement Day." Ash recited.

"Sounds ominous." A girl with blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes shuddered, just as the girl making breakfast came out with a cart laden with eggs, ham, piles of fried potatoes, a tureen of fruits, basket of rolls, along with jugs of orange, apple, grape and cranberry juice and a pot of hot chocolate. She was a breathtakingly beautiful girl with long, jet black hair that fell halfway to her back, with amethyst eyes and an hourglass figure that rivalled no one.

"Alright, let's decipher it line by line while we eat." The bespectacled black-haired boy suggested, as everyone else rubbed their hands and drooled at the breakfast as the girl floated the dishes and accurately slid the dishes in the middle of the table and placed each utensil, cup and plates in front of one person without a miss. She then silently took a seat between the bespectacled boy and another boy with spiky black hair, gray eyes and a scar on his left cheek.

"The unison of two worlds, eventually tipping the balance of life and death is the spark needed to push two worlds into war." A woman with brown-blonde hair, tough build and platinate blue eyes mused. "Wait, does it mean two worlds are now one?"

"Let me check, Anna." Phillip replied, taking out a world map, and widened his eyes. "Oh no, no, no!"

Everyone stopped eating and looked at the map. Aside from the regions, instead of the countries like they expected, they had four continents located at the remaining spaces that had places named Anima, Solitas, Sanus and within them was Mistral, Vacuo, Vale and Atlas. There were also other islands scattered on the map that was definitely not of their world.

"Who could have done this?" Ash looked on with open-mouthed horror. Meanwhile, Phillip had his laptop out, likely trying to hack into whatever communications tower this world has in order to access the situation better.

"Ash, you know any of us have the capabilities to do so." A girl with gray eyes and messy black hair said dismissively. "Right, Nevryn?" She winked at the boy with the scar on his cheek, who rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, Lexi." Nevryn muttered.

"Ok, then the rest of the prophecy makes sense." The bespectacled boy said, snapping his fingers. "The silver-eyed Rose is likely a person from that world. Her treasures it mentioned would mean the treasures from that world."

"How do we not know the silver-eyed Rose isn't an artifact, Shiki?" A muscular man with tawny eyes and dirty blonde hair asked.

"Ever heard of an actual rose with eyes, Randolph?" Shiki facepalmed at his stupidity. Then again, it's Randolph, what else does he expect? Shiki swore to Arceus that he's the stupidest, unluckiest person to ever exist.

"Oh come on, no harm asking." grinned Randolph, only to double over in pain when the brown-blonde haired woman stomped onto his foot.

"Keep talking," she grumbled. "And I'll think making spike-soled shoes to make it hurt even more."

"Alright, alright," Randolph laughed, wincing slightly. "The thought of you using actual weapons scares me, Lieutenant Anna."

"And it should." Anna folded her arms and gave a single nod of smug satisfaction. In the background, Shiki was smacking a hand belonging to a pink-haired girl with azure eyes from snatching his strawberry roll without even looking at her.

Anna thought, but Phillip finally hacked through the communications tower and heard a girl's desperate voice saying, "Ironwood's declaring Martial Law and abandoning Mantle! Salem is coming, and he's going to use the staff to move Atlas. If we don't stop him, then Mantle's going to be des—"

"The communication cut off." Phillip noted. "Must have been this guy Ironwood, considering who she's talking about. Let me try hacking into the security cameras, see if we have any answers."

"Des what?" The pink-haired girl asked, tilting her head innocently.

"Most likely, she was going to say destroyed." Ash said grimly.

"Salem? Ironwood? Staff?" A curly-haired man was confused.

"So, what do we do?" Shiki turned to Anna. "Seems dire."

"We're going to help them." Ash interrupted.

"We don't even know what's going on, Ash." The black-haired beauty was unsure.

"No, but we do know people are in danger, Pakura." Ash shot back. "We can get our answers later."

"Wait Ash, it's not very wise to let everyone go." Anna held out a hand to stop him.

"Anna's right. We need to do it without this Ironwood coming down on us too. This would mean less manpower to take on this Salem person." Phillip agreed. "Alright, I got the security footage."

"What do we need to do?" Ash asked.

"We need to take care of three things: One, this item." Phillip pointed to a footage of a boy that had black hair and hazel eyes with the iris being forest green, with accents of burnt orange and yellow around the pupil. At his hip was what looked like golden ornamented lantern with a blue sphere in the middle.

"What's that?" A platinum-blonde hair girl with scarlet eyes enquired.

"Not sure, Lily, but if they are fighting over it, it's probably important." Phillip answered. "Secondly…this. We have to find out what's going on." He managed to find a footage of a woman with a white-haired bun running across the corridor, as if she was checking if something was safe.

"And third?" An athletic girl who closely resembled Lexi asked.

"Third, we need a reason to get them to come here for the next step. So, I say we get this person." Phillip pulled out a picture of a man with dark spiky hair that looked like a cluster of feathers, pale red eyes and a slight stubble along his jawline on his laptop. "If I am not wrong, taking him would likely make them come here because he's the only adult and likely the parent figure to all the other kids. Even if they think it's a trap, it's likely they'll come here for him."

"We'll just send Shiki and Pakura, along with myself to do so." Anna nodded. Ash sighed.

'Of course Anna would choose her best two members to help her out, because she wants the mission to be done within an hour.' Ash thought, as Shiki himself also sighed, likely in exasperation towards Anna as usual.

"Anyway, Atlas has a specific airship design, so either one of you can disguise it as one when you go in." He nodded to Pakura and Shiki, giving them a picture of the Manta. "You've never been there, so we can't exactly teleport in. You'll have to go in manually."

"But how are you guys supposed to get there within minutes?" Ash asked.

Phillip had a grim look as he glanced at the pink-haired girl.

"Oh no, not Sara!" Jude groaned, which earned him an innocent look from the girl.

"Do you have any brighter ideas?" Phillip raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry, Sara can get us there before they arrive!" Sara declared.

Ash grimaced, but said, "Alright, you three better get a move on."

"Ash, you can can do the honour of receiving them, because it's likely they are around your age." Lily suggested.

"Yeah, rub it in, won't you?" Ash grumbled. Even though he was the PAL Champion, he was still the youngest member among them. True, while he had enough talent to become the PAL Champion, he still fell short when it came to fighting abilities when compared to the other members of Quarantine.

That was why Shiki retained his PAL Prince title despite losing to Ash in a Pokémon Battle. Ash suspected Shiki wasn't even trying to win when he battled him back then. Then again, Ash knew he still had lots more to work on as someone being perceived by the public as the PAL League member- Pokémon Battle wise, at least.

* * *

Everything is turning bleak as Salem crushed the General's hope

_(Shot panned towards a dark red sky with Team RWBY staring at the red sky, as Nevermores flew around the sky with a silhouette of smirking Salem at the moon. Ruby Rose closed her eyes solemnly, before cutting to the faces of Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long respectively.)_

But respite for Ruby's Group came in the form of the Chosen One

_(The point of view cuts to Ruby's, where red sky and Nevermore in front disappeared to reveal a boy standing in front of them, with a Pikachu and Lucario beside him. Ash turned around and smiled at Ruby, who was reflected in his brown eyes. Shot zooms in to his brown eye, and scene transitions) _

Floating on the edge of despair

_(Scene transitions to Qrow Branwen, standing at a rooftop with the red sky and his head down, red cape flowing in the wind and holding the Harbinger in scythe mode at his left hand, and slicing the screen with his scythe)_

But then we still hold out some hope

_(The scythe slashed to reveal Royal Flush cards in spades and the five cards was blown aside by an unknown force to stick to the background, revealing a smirking Shiki with a katana at his back and winking at the camera) _

Even if situation seems grim

_(A black-haired girl was shown in a chamber looking at a hologram of Caldia City, the City of Magic. The girl summoned a staff with a purple crystal before crystal glowed in a purple light, seemingly consuming the hologram Caldia City)_

Rulers await now to see how we fight

_(Cut to PAL's Hall of Fame, showing statues of all the rulers so far, with a giant Salem controlling them like a puppet with strings attached to attack RWBY and Ash, Pakura, Shiki, Jude and Phillip. All of them took out their weapons at the ready) _

But then our fate's controlled by our hand

_(Nora brought Magnhild down on a young man with blonde hair and blue eyes, who easily caught it and tossed her to the side. Shot cuts to another boy resembling him only with dark hair and dark eyes kicking Ren's StormFlower off his hands.) _

Freedom awaits if we have the key

_(Ashura and Ruby was smiling at each other as they spared in a forest clearing. Ashura aimed a high kick at Ruby, who blocked it with a scythe which Ashura backflipped to dodge. However, the scythe emitted lighting, which flashes the whole screen.) _

It's a fight for our lives bestowed unto us by the Gods

_(Qrow fought off a group of Sabyr Grimm running towards him, not noticing one behind him about to attack, only for a silhouette to slice them apart. Qrow looked behind to see Clover Ebi, before the person faded to Shiki instead. Shiki walked towards Qrow, putting a hand on his shoulder, and Qrow smiled uneasily.)_

So now, all we need to do

_(Shiki narrows his eyes and pushes Qrow aside just as a red-headed boy in an eye mask and a magician's outfit ran towards and attacked Shiki who threw him aside with an unseen force.) _

Is to give it our best

_(Qrow Branwen then jumped into the fray and attacked the magician boy, managing to kick his face and his eye mask away, and the shot focuses on the mask falling to the ground with a clatter.) _

So now, all we need to do

_(Ruby kills several Grimm with Crescent Rose in what looked like Salem's realm before purifying Shadow Pokémon with her Silver Eyes.)_

We have to work together

_(When the light faded, Ash was seen behind her with Pikachu and Lucario, with piles of defeated Grimm and Shadow Pokémon behind him)_

Since if we stay strong; keep our courage

_(Shot zooms out to a determined Ruby, equipped with her Crescent Rose. She nodded to Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee to her left who gave her reassuring smiles and Yang Xiao Long to her right cocked her Ember Celica in response and grinned) _

We'll find a way to survive within this war thrown at us

_(Zoom in to Summer Rose standing over a cliff where behind her was the Evernight Castle, white cloak fluttering at the side. She lifted up her arm to cover her face, and when she lowered her arm, she became Ruby and her cloak became red, as she threw it out like a hero would. She had a confident smirk on her face as she did so)_

Or would we succumb to them…

_(Shot pans to all the Quarantine members standing in a circle, made up of PAL and Genesis members, each with a differing pose and expressions, ending to Ash, and shot zooms in to him.)_

No, I won't accept this fate

They couldn't begin to unravel this need to live

_(His face switches to Ruby, who has the same determined expression, and it pans to every single Quarantine member, JNR, Oscar and Qrow, all standing at the distance looking at the Evernight Castle. A fingerless-gloved hand was placed on Qrow's shoulder, and he jumped and looked back, but nothing was shown of the person)_

I only wanted to finish this fight for peace

_(Ash and Ruby closed their eyes and began to show a white, purified aura from their bodies, before becoming a silhouette Ruby kills several Grimm with Crescent Rose before turning into a 2D moving black silhouette and swinging their respective weapons, before to Weiss and Pakura, Blake and Phillip and Yang and Jude respectively in the same style swinging with their own weapons.) _

As a pure soul, I truly believed that

Hopes do come true

_(A close-up is shown of Ruby and Ash's faces back in the normal style before zooming out and showing that Teams RWBY, JNPR, Qrow and Oscar are at the left looking at the right with Ruby, and for Ash, the PAL members and Genesis members are on the right looking to the left. In the middle was Salem, and a few other silhouettes not shown.)_

(Sang to the tune of Mirai Nikki opening, Kuusou Mesorogiwi)

* * *

"We're here!" Sara chirped to the three passengers, who looked like they have been through a total nightmare, clinging to each other like their lives depended on it and shivering and it was not from the cold outside.

"Why did we let her pilot the plane again?" Shiki muttered. He should have expected it considering every time Sara pilots a vehicle, they somehow end up in another dimension, or another timeline due to the sheer speed she can manually pilot a vehicle. While this was their best shot, it didn't mean Shiki had to like it.

Although they had reached Atlas in two minutes flat, they had just been through a dimension filled with eternal nightmare and torture on the way, thanks to Sara. Sara herself did not seemed disturbed, as she had cheerfully said, "Sara has seen scarier nightmares in her head."

"You know where to go, right? Phillip has marked the locations." Anna said.

Pakura and Shiki nodded.

"Good. Just kill whoever is in your way." Anna told her adoptive daughter.

"Don't listen to her. Try not to if you can." Shiki sighed. While he does respect Anna for her skills and all, she isn't exactly the kind of mother who would raise a child properly.

For example, if Pakura wrote the Hunger Games as the answer to the best solution to overpopulation, Anna would say, "It's not efficient enough. That only takes care of 23 people a year. You need more than that."

Or, if she was being bullied, Anna would encourage her to fight back and bash in the bully's head for as many times as needed, and sadly due to this advice, Pakura has a fair share of kills as a result of it. Perhaps it was from all the age-restricted movies Anna had illegally snuck her in to watch when she was growing up. It was a miracle she actually turned out the sweetheart everyone thought she was today.

Anna opened the door, and all three jumped out, with Shiki and Pakura flying to their assigned locations. Anna simply used the recoil of her guns to get to where she needed, and landed pillar of Atlas Academy around the main building's wall. Luckily, she wasn't seen yet with the number of people around.

She snuck around, grabbed one soldier silently, and dressed in their clothes. Now she can get in without a problem. Luckily for her, she spotted a military Huntress walking away from the group of soldiers with the Relic of Knowledge Anna had seen from the picture hanging from her belt.

Something told Anna that this wasn't a real Huntress, immediately tackling her to the ground. Sure enough, when the girl impacted on the floor, a pink, glass-like Aura passes over her, revealing a girl with brown and pink hair with matching eyes and wearing a hat.

Anna jumped back to dodge the hidden blade protruding from the end of her umbrella, with the Relic in hand.

"Hmm…what is it about this lamp that is special, anyway?" Anna wondered.

The girl said nothing, only rushed at Anna with the umbrella blade in hand. Anna grabbed the blade with one hand and yanked the girl forward and caused her to lose her balance, before giving her a good kick to the chin. The girl backflipped to her feet, disarmed of her weapon. At the same time, Anna saw some pink shimmers around her body.

Anna smirked and waved the weapon, before breaking it in half. The girl widened her eyes, and rushed at Anna, not intending to give up the Relic. The girl threw a punch at Anna's throat, only for Anna to sidestep it, and hit her in the gut with a punch.

However, instead of seeing her opponent get thrown back by the force, she shattered glass, telling her that the criminal had used her Semblance to avoid the attack at the last second.

It didn't matter. Shiki had taught her a way to sense opponents, even in disguise through Aura. Since she was already familiar with the girl's Aura signature, it is likely she can tell where she was even if she was in disguise. Besides, it looked like the girl needed to get in close to strike her, so she can bank on that moment.

Anna opened her eyes when she felt a response and swung a kick, managing to get the mute girl to hit the wall. A pink coloured sheen went along her body before particles went flying off the body.

Anna wasted no time, grabbing her arms and pinning them to her sides to prevent her from moving and kneed her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her lungs, and the only reason she didn't double over was because Anna was holding her. Then she twisted her opponents' arms, breaking both of them before sending her to the ground with a kick to the chest.

Once the girl had hit the ground, Anna finished it off with a stomp to the face, breaking her nose and rendering her unconscious.

"Please. I've won a war. What's one little girl?" Anna shook her head. "It's child's play to me." She took out a stone that was glowing blue, and used it to deactivate a barrier she had enacted earlier to prevent anyone from hearing the battle. In fact, one wouldn't be able to see it unless they focused Aura on their eyes due to it being made of Aura.

With that, she walked away, lamp in one hand and dragging the unconscious body of the girl in the other and humming some military song.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shiki blinked at the wreckage as he landed in the middle of the tundra as Phillip had marked it. Being careful not to let the other two men spot him while keeping his ears out for the conversation, he snuck over to the unconscious woman. He checked her vitals with his Aura and for any abnormalities, and concluded she was just knocked unconscious.

He noted that her Aura was still up despite being knocked out, and thought Aura over here must work differently from theirs. When he went into the wreckage to look for any more survivors, he saw a pale man with a brown braided hair and with what looked like a real scorpion's tail. There was just something about him that screamed psychopath. Shiki mused it was lucky that he was unconscious.

Before the man could wake up, Shiki simply took a sharp shard he found, enhanced it with his Aura and stabbed him in the chest, killing him instantly. While he still had some Aura left, it wasn't enough to protect him from the fatal blow.

Shiki sighed. He could already tell what was going on outside. The brown-haired man with teal eyes was telling this Qrow that he was going to bring him in.

'No, they haven't fought yet.' Shiki thought. 'They are still talking. Maybe I could…' He targeted Qrow, subtly controlling his actions.

Meanwhile, Qrow was about to charge at Clover, but his mind became blank. He then snapped, "Your duty is to your kingdom, your people! James has been letting Mantle suffer for years and the fall of Beacon has been pushing him off the edge and you let it happen!"

Shiki saw Clover take a step back, clearly taken aback by Qrow's words.

"You should have seen him mentally breaking." Qrow continued, feeling a foreign sense of confidence and speaking his mind like he should have. "You'd have to be an idiot to have missed the signs and since you're not one, you're just ignoring them. Do I have to spell it out for you? James isn't mentally well, and he's clearly not fit to be making these kinds of decisions because he doesn't take into account that he's not infallible and you let him go on like this!"

"That's not for us to decide!"

Qrow clutched to his weapon tighter. "Then who decides? James? He's a literally paranoid authoritative figure who wants everything in his control and he's been terrified for years. He'll definitely not listen to reason even if it bit him on the ass because all that fear clouds his judgement. The Ice Queen is so busy kissing his ass she would never see anything wrong with his decisions, and your Council didn't even know anything until an hour ago, so tell me who's left to decide? Who?"

All he got for his efforts was Clover gritting his teeth.

"You Atlesian soldiers are all the same, mindless, brainless puppets to serve Ironwood. Not a single one of you is capable of independent thought, and apparently even the best of them isn't either."

"Qrow, please," Clover tried. "Give me a chance to find out what's going on and we could—"

"I should've known you cared more about your position than me anyway," Qrow admitted quietly, staring down at the floor. "I knew you would put following orders before anything we might…no, but there was never anything there. Was being nice to me your orders?"

"No, it..."

"I should have known; Ironwood must have figured out wouldn't be difficult for the good luck charm to treat the bad luck charm like everyone else." Qrow said, resigned.

"Qrow, that's not..."

"I should have known it was always going to come to this at some point. I just never thought it would be because you care more about following the rules than the people you're supposed to protect." Qrow then walked towards Shiki, as instructed before Clover could react.

Shiki took this opportunity to knock Qrow out when he reached his location.

"Qrow, wait!" Clover chased after him, only to stop short at Shiki holding an unconscious Qrow. "Who are you?" He pointed Kingfisher at Shiki.

"I need him for a bit." Shiki said. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Let him go, or I'll arrest you." Clover warned, only for his Kingfisher to be pulled away by an unseen force, and thrown a distance away.

"And that'll make me surrender, how?" Shiki asked, unfazed. "Besides, why would you care? I bet you rather sacrifice your loved ones just so you can comply with the General's orders. Just another mindless puppet."

"I…" Clover shook his head. However, before Clover could do anything, Shiki gave him a single punch to the stomach, shattering his Aura instantly due to the sheer amount of force Shiki put in that punch. Not only did it deplete his entire Aura, it also caused Clover to cough out some blood and sent him flying.

As Clover hit the side of the crashed vehicle, the vehicle somehow caved in, not killing him, but certainly leaving him stuck.

"I didn't even punch that hard." Shiki walked over while getting Kingfisher to fly to his hand, and dropped it next to Clover. He heard the sound of an airship engine in the distance, and commented, "Looks like you won't be stuck for long, but it's more than enough time for me."

"You…" Clover started, only Shiki said, "Don't worry. I'll take good care of Qrow. After all, you're not the only one with good luck."

Clover could only watch in horror as Shiki teleported away, taking the unconscious Qrow away with him.

* * *

'Of all tasks, of course I end up with the psychopathic, power-hungry murderess.' Pakura thought, somersaulting away from a slash attack in the observation room. Pakura hated people like that. It reminded her of Rosaline after all, hiding behind a charismatic air, but wanted nothing more than power.

Once she gained some distance, she charged in with a thrust. But it was parried, as Pakura continued her assault strikes and thrusts that struck Cinder multiple times with her superior speed, and kicked her back.

Cinder propelled herself to Pakura with two flame swords in hand, but Pakura simply dodged one, and deflected the other. During the tense swordplay, Pakura spotted a brief opening and sent Cinder flying backwards with a telekinetic blast.

Cinder raged, and used fireballs to shoot at Pakura, who held out a hand to meet the fireballs head on. She smiled as she was unharmed due to her immunity to magic-based attacks.

"Fighting me with magic? Ironic, and a waste of time." Pakura said, rushing towards Cinder, who realized her Maiden powers would not work on her, tried to form glass projectiles and shot at Pakura, but it was redirected back to her without any gesture from Pakura. She then immobilized with telekinesis, allowing Pakura to barrage her with punches and kicks with no fear of retaliation, causing her Aura to flicker.

Cinder saw that the torrent of freezing winds had calmed down and was about to go, only Pakura sliced off her left arm. As she screamed in agony, Pakura attacked her with shards of ice raining down on Cinder, who had no choice but to tank it with her Aura due to the pain from the Grimm arm, as it finally grew back.

Pakura looked at where the Shadow Hand extended to and was disgusted to see it was up to her shoulders. She wondered if she sliced from there, it would be permanent. Her eye flares with Maiden fire, and formed a black glass sword and threw it at Pakura, who dodged it with ease. Cinder then furiously threw several more black glass swords and knives at Pakura, who simply used telekinesis to deflect it back to Cinder, who got one embedded in her arm.

Pakura rushed down at Cinder, punching her face, but Cinder managed to use her Shadow Hand to try and attack, only to be dodged. Cinder quickly rushed back into the room to scream at Penny that the Fria is hers, only for Winter to return to the fray and Cinder retaliated by grabbing Winter, burning her skin in the process, and throwing her against the wall.

Penny gasped, and Pakura stopped Cinder's Grimm hand from reaching them.

"Don't worry. I'm a friend. I'm here to help." Pakura smiled. She nodded to the dying Fria, and holding Fria's other hand. Fria looked at her, smiling at the girl who oozed comfort from her hands.

Penny nodded at the sincerity of Pakura's smile, as there was no time for introductions.

Pakura pulled Cinder, causing her to stumble and a well-placed kick simply depleted her remaining aura, before Pakura froze her in an ice mirror. The mirror then shattered in pieces, taking Cinder with it. At the same time, Fria, who had lost consciousness, closed her eyes.

Snowflakes and wind swirled through the air, and both Penny and Pakura had their eyes closed, with snowflakes and wind drifting around them respectively. Penny opened her eyes, revealing green Maiden flames coming from her eyes.

Meanwhile, Pakura was saying, "What's going on?" At her eyes having blue Maiden flames around her eyes that was reflected in the shards of ice mirror she had created. "What is this?" She then sensed two people coming, and quickly ran before Penny could ask her name to thank her for her help. Just then, Ruby and Weiss ran in.

"Winter." Weiss said in concern, jumping down and going over to her, who was just getting up. Winter glared and asked, "What did you do?"

Ruby looked over to Penny, whose flames faded away, and looked at Ruby before turning and dropping to her knees, resting her hand on Fria's. Ruby hurried over to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright? Penny, what happened?" Ruby asked.

"She's…gone…" Penny nodded to Fria sadly.

"No, she's a part of you now." Winter glared.

"Then there was this girl, she killed Cinder. She was protecting me." Penny explained. "I didn't even catch her name."

"Was she familiar?" Ruby asked.

"No, we never met. But she protected me without question. She ran after seeing her eyes, which were like mine earlier." Penny said sadly.

"The new Fall Maiden…" Ruby gasped.

Meanwhile, Pakura was saying, "I don't understand. The moment I killed that power-hungry woman, my eyes started to glow with this blue fire around my eyes like hers did. It's like I have gained her powers or something." She was with Shiki and Anna, gathered outside the plane, with all their objectives secured.

Shiki had placed Qrow in the inside of the plane, praying he doesn't wake up when they are going through another dimension when it's piloted by Sara. The ice cream lady was also haphazardly thrown into the plane. Why Anna decided to take her was beyond him.

"I guess you keep what you kill?" Anna shrugged.

"What? I don't want to have that arm that looks like it came from a Grimm." Pakura protested, sitting down.

"Don't be stupid." Shiki scoffed. "I don't think that arm comes with whatever powers you gained."

"But it shouldn't belong to me! I'm not even from that world." Pakura muttered.

"Look, we don't know what that power entails, besides throwing fire. You don't even need it though. You can already control wind, fire and ice with your Aura anyway." Shiki assured her.

"I don't even want them!" Pakura said, "I just wanted to make sure that girl would claim her rightful powers. Like Shiki said, I don't need these powers to be strong."

"Maybe you're being rewarded." Anna suggested. "For being a good girl."

"Ahem." Shiki coughed in disbelief at the statement.

"She is an angel, I'll have you know." Anna huffed.

"Yeah, only because of my interference with your questionable parenting skills." Shiki rolled his eyes.

"Relax, Shiki. I see it as a good thing. At least those powers are no longer in the villains' hands." Anna said confidently.

As she said this, they got transported to another dimension, and what they saw made them vomit, scream or curse Randolph. The pilot herself was not very perturbed by it, and only said, "Ew".

It was an infinite number of Randolphs menacingly rubbing their nipples.

Shiki had a hard time deciding which dimension was worse, the one they been through when they came to Atlas, or when returning from Atlas.

No matter. That dimension aside, once they get back, with their objectives all secured, they can turn their attention back what they sought to do.

Lure Team RWBY to them, and get answers.

While one of them could have just used their psychic powers to extract memories from Qrow or that ice cream girl, Shiki felt this wouldn't endear the group to them if they abuse their powers like Ironwood did. Ultimately, what they needed was the group to trust them. As Shiki had always said, actions speak louder than words.

Later, when Maria's Manta flies away from the City of Atlas, a voice comes over the ship's panel, where a video is playing, likely live. Everyone turned when Maria noted someone was hacking the ship's control panels to send a message.

"Am I on, Phillip?" At the sound of someone saying yes, he said "Good."

A boy with black hair and brown eyes was staring at them. Everyone noted he did not look much older than the older girls of RWBY. "This message is for Team RWBY and whoever is traveling with them. My name is Ashura Red Satoshi Ketchum, but you can call me Ash. You may not know it yet, but something big has happened that required the need for your cooperation."

"What's he on about?" Weiss frowned.

"You have lost a lamp, I believe, but you do not need to worry. I have it here."

The Relic of Knowledge floated in front of him, and everyone gasped. Ruby approached the panel to look at the boy, who dropped the lamp, letting it fall out of the screen.

"Someone has helped me procure it, if you must know. I am not working with whoever stole the Relic. I'm not here to instigate a fight, because I believe each of us has the answers the other wants. If the Relic isn't enough for you to agree on a meeting point for us to take you back to a safe place away from Ironwood, then…" Ash brought in an unconscious Qrow. "This would."

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby shouted.

"We need to get him!" Yang added.

"But what about Oscar?" Penny asked.

"Don't worry. Whoever you left behind; we can get them for you." Ash continued. "But if you want the Relic and your relative back, come to these coordinates. We'll be waiting." With that, the panel switched to a map, a dot indicating their location and a pathway to the location Ash had designated to meet.

"I'm on it." Maria sighed, changing course to the meeting place Ash had assigned, setting the ship to maximum speed, knowing how dire the situation was.

After the message, everyone is sitting at the benches, looking at one another.

"This boy Ash said he just wanted to break bread and talk things out. But with Jacques Schnee and his dinner party ploy, I'm not sure if this isn't a trap." Blake said.

"Yeah, but the problem is he has the advantage. He has Uncle Qrow and the Relic of Knowledge, and I am not about to let those stay at the enemy's hands." Ruby said with determination.

"Hopefully he's more reasonable than my father." Weiss muttered. "He's definitely elite material with his mannerisms and appearance."

"Don't worry, Ruby. If the girl I saw is a friend of his, maybe this wouldn't be so bad." Penny suggested.

"I still can't believe they somehow managed to get the Relic from Neopolitan!" Nora hissed. "How did they even know to go there for the Relic?"

"Nora's right. We won't get our answers until we get to the meeting point." Jaune agreed.

"While they confirmed they have nothing to do with Salem, they definitely know something because why else would they go after the Relic and take Qrow with them?" Ren questioned.

"I don't know." Ruby shook her head. "But one thing's for sure. If Ash and his team is up to something, I think we should find out what it is."

Everyone thought about it, before nodding with conviction.

'Who are you, Ash?' Ruby thought.

Back in PAL, Ash sighed as he looked out the window. Their mission was a success, of course, but Pakura returned with something extra in the process. Something told Ash that the group would know something about those powers.

He hoped Anna's decision to interfere in Atlas is the right one. After all, it didn't take a lot to push General Ironwood off the edge, according to what he saw in the footage Phillip managed to hack and retrieve.

And none of his subordinates questioned his orders. Ash shuddered at the thought, knowing that in Genesis, it was the same thing. No one questioned Anna's orders either, but that was because they love and respected her, not because they were soldiers serving under a general.

"The balance our world has…it won't hold for much longer." Ash noted to his Pikachu. "It's likely Salem would come for us instead of Atlas, now we have done this."

**"Would doing this help us in the long run?"** Pikachu asked.

"I hope so, buddy. I hope so." Ash replied solemnly. "I pray that when shit hits the fan, we will be ready."

**BP: Anyway, to answer a few questions you might have, I got the idea of the worlds merging from Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. **

**Anyway, I know it's a bad chapter, but I wrote it to vent my emotions, I was livid at my former classmates for mocking the stories I wrote for fun, and the concept sounded fun to me. I feel better now after writing everything down while running on the fuel of anger. **

**If you're wondering if I actually watch RWBY, the answer is only two episodes. I heavily depend on the wikia (so the fans knowledge) to have an idea of how their world works and as for the plot in general, I read the transcripts. So, no, some of the information I written down would be inaccurate, as I may mix up things. **

**As for why Ash isn't more prominent in this chapter, it's mainly because Ash is still considered inexperienced when comparing to other members who have been in this gig for longer than he has. Yes, he's the main character, but I feel Ash still has a lot of room for development as a result. **

**Phillip was able to hack into the Atlas system because his technological genius is second to none in his world and is an experienced hacker and programmer in his own right. Most Quarantine members talents are comparable to those Ultimates in Danganronpa, so they are the best in what they do. **

**I may focus on the Pokémon aspects more, because I am much more familiar with Pokémon and secondly, the way Aura works in the Pokémon world or at least how I designed Aura to work in the Pokémon World, which was taken from Hunter X Hunter. **

**Yes, I heard Neo is powerful, but why Anna was able to defeat her was two things: They fought in a cramped area, leaving Neo with less space to make use of her gymnastics, dance battler style (she seems like it anyway) and secondly, Anna has faced opponents like Neo before in her military career, but Neo hasn't faced anyone quite like Anna, who can shatter her Aura in an instant if she wanted to. **

**Since Anna (according to N. Aepic Fael) can literally throw a moon, Anna was actually going easy on Neo at that fight. **

**Like in the other PAL stories, psychic powers exist. The reason why Shiki was able to control Qrow was because Mind Control depends on willpower or Psychic Shields to resist it. Since Qrow was emotionally hurt, it leaves him extremely vulnerable to Shiki's psychic attack. Also, Shiki's strength exceeds Anna, so it's likely he can shatter Clover's Aura in an instant as well. **

**Because the Aura mechanics I designed for the Pokémon World is totally different from how it works in RWBY, there will be a significant difference between the RWBY characters and the characters from Pokémon in terms of abilities. I'll be here all night if I were to explain the full extent of Genesis/PAL abilities, because unlike RWBY, they can physically manifest their aura in more than one way and some even have psychic powers or magical powers (this will be explained later), so I'll let the story reveal the rest. **

**As for why I killed Cinder and Tyrian early, well, Pakura was acting in self-defense and know she can't let her live and continue her quest for power, lest she goes after Penny, whom she saw as innocent. For those who read my PAL Series, it would probably be obvious to you they would choose to kill and how Shiki isn't stupid as to leave someone he thought a killer alive. After all, as assassins, what is one more kill to them? **

**But don't worry, if this story continues (depends on reception), I have an idea of the antagonists I would add in for Ash and the others to combat, so those two aren't needed in this story. **

**Any pairings you want, you can request, because since I don't know RWBY much. Any suggestions are welcome too. **

**I originally didn't want to post this, but N. Aepic Fael was urging me to, so I'll do it for him.**


	2. The Respite

**BP: Well, I decided to continue and see where this goes. I write this when I am not working on AV, which is what I will finish next. I am going to clean up my old POT stories that are unfinished for many years, give closure and all. I would be doing lots of writing as I now write travel articles as a freelance writer. **

The Manta made a quick, spiral descent onto the location Ash indicated, which looked like a wide road on the outskirts. Almost immediately, the door opened, the stairs slid into place, and everyone from the vehicle stepped out. Ruby looked around for the person she saw on the video, only to see no one in sight.

"Where is he? He said he'd be waiting here!" Weiss grumbled.

"Er…up there?" Blake pointed, where Ruby saw Ash standing on a pole light, with his eyes closed. He was wearing a different outfit from the video, with dark blue shirt and a short-sleeved beige overtop. He wore fingerless gloves, and on the left glove was a rainbow coloured round stone with a symbol that looked like a distorted S shape with horizontal lines in the shape itself. He also wore white trousers with ankle-high black boots.

On his shoulder was what looked like short, chubby rodent with yellow fur with two horizontal brown stripes on its back. It had a small mouth, long, pointed ears with black tips, and brown eyes. Each cheek was a red circle that and it had short forearms with five fingers on each paw, and its feet each have three toes. At the base of its lightning bolt-shaped tail was a patch of brown fur.

Next to him, floating in a sitting position, was a bipedal, canine-like creature, with fur that was predominantly blue and black. It possessed a short, round spike on the back of each forepaw, in addition to a third on its chest. It had red eyes, a long snout and ears, with cream-colored fur on its torso, and blue fur on its thighs that resembled shorts. It had a medium length tail of the same blue colour as well. It also had four black appendages that hanged down from its head.

"HELLO! WE'RE HERE!" Nora shouted.

Ash opened his eyes in surprise, and in the process, looked down. "Oh, please forgive me." He jumped down, landing on his feet perfectly, with the blue and black creature floating down next to him, and placed its feet on the floor. "I must have lost track of time."

"You're Ash, right?" Ruby asked.

"That's right. I've been sent here to come pick you all up." Ash answered. "A pleasure to meet you all." He greeted everyone, including Maria and Pietro.

"Are you here alone?" Yang asked, incredulous. "Where's the rest of your team?"

"They are preparing to welcome you." Ash replied.

"Did they not want the duty to do so?" Ren frowned.

"Actually, I asked to do this alone. I feel it would be a threat if more of us came." Ash answered. "I am sorry for the misunderstanding."

"Where's Qrow?" Jaune demanded.

"With the rest of my team." Ash said, patting Pikachu, who let out a coo. "I know you have lots of questions, but please, save them for when I take you to my teammates. We will answer your questions to the best we can, and I'll appreciate it if you'd do the same. You can also save introductions for later."

"This had better be worth it." Maria grumbled.

Ash did not answer, but just looked around at everyone, before his eyes glowed.

Everyone immediately got the disorienting feeling of having the world yanked out from under them. Ruby blinked her eyes and they were suddenly standing in front of what looked like an extremely grand manor that made the Schnee Manor look like a hovel.

Ash steadied Maria, before scanning his iris into the scanner. At this, the double doors opened to reveal a warm-looking main hall that was accentuated with red, white and gold, making it look far warmer than the Schnee Manor.

They arrive in the hall just as a girl with long black hair and amethyst eyes, wearing a black sleeveless turtleneck top and denim stretch jeans, with a katana strapped to her back walked past. At her side was a slender-legged creature covered with pale cream-colored fur with pink feet, ears, and tail. It had light blue eyes, long ears with blue interiors and thicker fur, a tiny nose, and two stray tufts of fur on top of its head. There were two bows on its body, one at the base of its left ear and one on its neck. Each bow was pale cream with a pink center and trailed a pair of ribbon-like feelers that were pale cream with light blue tip. It also had fluffy, slightly curved tail.

Penny recognized her with a gasp. "Yay, there you are!"

Her celebratory greeting caught Pakura's attention, causing her to stop and look.

"You know her, Penny?" Ruby asked, surprised.

"Yep! She's the one who protected me by killing Cinder and became the new Fall Maiden!" Penny said cheerfully.

"In my defense, she was trying to kill me. I just paid her back in kind." From the girl's tone, Blake and Yang noted that she did not seem remorseful at all for the kill.

"That's Pakura Ameyuri. She's one of my teammates." Ash introduced, and Pakura nodded in greeting.

"Ash, perfect timing." Pakura said in a calm tone. "I would like to let you and the guests know that lunchtime is postponed for a few hours. Randolph has ruined the kitchen again, and we'll have to fumigate it before I can go in and make lunch. I am going to mum to report this."

"Again?" Ash sounded exasperated. Everyone looked at Ash curiously at his tone.

"I suggest you guys take a shower, and wear something comfortable before coming down for lunch. We'll call you when lunch is ready." With that, she walked off, presumably to report to her mother, as an entourage of weird creatures followed Pakura like they were attracted by her.

"What was that all about?" Ren wondered, watching the scene. Maria was just walking around, picking up things and examining them, before putting them back down.

"Well, Paku is quite the hit with the living creatures." Ash admitted.

"She must have some sort of strange power over them!" Nora exclaimed.

"You're not wrong." Ash admitted. "We don't really know how her charm works, but we do know it works on every living being."

"Where's Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked loudly.

As if on cue, another door opened, and young man, who looked around Winter's age but older than Ash, poked his head out, frowning. He had jet black hair combed down, but it was still very slightly messed, with violet eyes hiding behind a pair of glasses. He was currently wearing black pants, black jacket and a white shirt and a katana strapped to his back.

Next to him was a four-legged creature covered in fine, lilac fur. Its ears were large, and it had purple eyes with white pupils. There were tufts of fur near its eyes, and a small, red gem embedded in its forehead. It also had a thin, forked tail.

"Hi, Shiki." said Ash.

"Oh hello, Ash," said Shiki. "I was wondering when you'd be back. You better keep your volume down- Qrow's sleeping."

"He's in the room?" Ruby whispered.

Shiki nodded, and stepped aside to let everyone in. Everyone looked in awe at how well-furnished the room seemed to be, like it was something out of a royal palace from fairy tales. In fact, maybe the manor was a royal palace.

"I'd like to sincerely apologize for taking him. If we had known an alternative method of getting you here without resorting to this quickly, we would have done so." Shiki said to the group, holding out a hand to Ruby with a smile.

"I understand." Ruby nodded grimly, taking Shiki's hand and shaking it. She looked at Qrow, who didn't seem to be injured in any way. It didn't look like Shiki had hurt him in any way, and was in fact, well taken care of.

"But you could have just approached us and asked us to come." Weiss noted.

"After what Ironwood did, I doubt you would just come if we just asked." Ash replied. "After all, we never met each other."

"You're not wrong." Ren admitted.

"At least we know he's alright." Jaune remarked.

"The Relic you seek is with Anna at the moment. You'll meet her at lunch. Anyway, let's leave Qrow to Shiki and I'll show you to the guest rooms."

The group decided to follow Ash, as Qrow seemed to be alright and Shiki didn't harbour any desire of hurting Qrow.

"We usually have one person per room, but if you desire, two of you could share a room." Ash told them, as they reached a hallway full of guest rooms. "Pick any room you desire."

The rooms turned out to be much fancier than the dorm rooms in Atlas Academy. Ruby had chosen to share a room with Weiss, and saw that the bedroom only had one bed, but it was large and under an elegant canopy, between soft, silky fabric and a thick fluffy comforter.

There were drawers filled with fine clothes, and Ash had told them to do anything they want, wear anything they want, everything is at their disposal. Just be ready for lunch in a few hours, and don't hesitate to ask if they need anything.

The room also had so many automatic gadgets that Ruby was sure she won't have time to press all the buttons, with the shower alone having a panel with more than a hundred options she can choose regulating water temperature, pressure, soaps, shampoos, scents, oils, and massaging sponges.

Weiss discovered that when someone stepped out on a mat, heaters come on that blow-dry their body and a box would send a current through one's scalp, untangling, parting, and drying their hair almost instantly. There are also call buttons for butlers and maids in the room if they have any requests.

"What do you think, Weiss?" Ruby asked, once they were alone.

"They are even more well-funded than Atlas." Weiss commented, looking around the room. "Those people also seem alright for an elite. Much nicer than the socialites I've met. What about you?"

"I don't condone Pakura killing Cinder, but apparently it's common over here." Ruby replied. "I need time to see what they are like."

"Why?" Weiss was puzzled.

"I want to see if they are like the Ace-Ops, or…they are like us. That would be the deciding factor as to whether we ask them for an alliance or not." Ruby answered.

"You want to ask them for an alliance?" Weiss was surprised.

"We need help, Weiss." Ruby replied, as she headed for the bathroom. "If anyone could come up with a plan regarding Atlas, I have a feeling they can."

Meanwhile, Ash tried to be gracious, serving them coffee, which was the only beverage available while the kitchen is being decontaminated thanks to Randolph's meddling. "I apologize for the lack of options available, but one of the members has once again ruined the kitchen."

"It's fine, lad." Pietro replied. "This could not be more perfect."

"You telling me!" Maria sipped her coffee. "So Ash, how did you even find out about our situation?"

"Well, Phillip made use of his technological skills to hack into the tower used to monitor communications, and Atlas Academy's cameras after we realized our world map was compromised with the locations of your world." Ash replied, sitting down with them. "We didn't know how important the lamp thing was, except that it must be important if there were people fighting for it."

"I see." Maria nodded. "You went in head first."

Ash looked sheepish. "We didn't know anything other than people were going to die. I can't let that happen."

"Brave as my daughter, you are." Pietro complimented. "My darling has also sworn to protect Mantle…until Ironwood abandoned them."

"Yes, I heard about the martial law thing…what is it?" Ash asked.

"It's where a government imposes direct military control of normal civilian functions in response to a temporary emergency such as invasion or major disaster. It can be used to enforce their rule over the public. As someone who holds two seats on the Council in Atlas, this means that the rest of the Council can't do anything once General Ironwood declares that." Pietro explained. "You don't have anything like that?"

"I think this question is better directed at one of my other members." Ash admitted. "I know all of you have questions for us, but let's just enjoy some coffee for now. That way, we'll have all the members gathered and one of us could answer any questions you may have. I apologize, but I don't have all the answers, being the youngest member and all…"

"Ah, so he's like Marrow." Pietro and Maria exchanged a knowing look.

Ash wondered who Marrow was, and said, "Well, if you know of any weapons that need fine-tuning, we have a floor dedicated to weapon workshops and testing them."

"A whole floor, you say?" Pietro seemed to sit straight up. "Could you lead me there?"

"Of course." Ash indicated for Pietro to follow him, while Maria chose to stay at the living area, citing that she could handle a few minutes of peace. The level was situated quite far down, where Pietro saw a beehive of rooms full of computers, labs, research equipment, and testing ranges.

Ash had to take out a map to get to the area, for even he got lost at times. Ash explained to Pietro that the only ones who can navigate their way through this maze and get to the right room within the first try was Shiki, Pakura, Phillip and Stratos.

As Pietro followed Ash, Ash explained that the reason why it was underground was because of a Civil War that happened, and the Genesis people were desperate for more weaponry, and the only way they could do so without risking being bombed was underground, and after the war, it was revamped to a private area for Phillip to do his projects in peace.

"Phillip often likes to tinker with ideas, you see, so he had made the entire floor sort of his domain when he wasn't on duty and is here." Ash said. "He's the world's best inventor, programmer, game maker, blacksmith…whatever area that required high intelligence, he's the person people turn to."

"Sounds like a talented young lad." Pietro nodded.

"He is." Ash replied, reaching a door to the armory where finger-print, retinal, and DNA scans, were required and a second round of identification checks — as if their DNA might have changed in the time it took to walk twenty yards down the hallway and finally entered the weapons collection.

Pietro had to admit the arsenal took his breath away. Row upon row of firearms, launchers, explosives, and various weapons all lie alongside the wall. Pietro looked at a lethal-looking bow so loaded down with scopes and gadgetry at the bow and arrow section with interest.

Ash admitted they were more old-school with their weapons without using modifications, although most of them have a weapon type that that prefer.

"Stratos and Phillip was going to work on this together after the Civil War but…" Ash hesitated, and shook his head, and Pietro understood. Stratos didn't make it out of the war.

"Perhaps I could assist him." Pietro offered, as they heard whimpering.

They found poor Phillip on the ground at the computer section where weapon concepts were made, with Lily sitting on top of him, eating a pack of chocolate balls.

"Again?" Ash asked dryly, as Phillip cried anime tears as his snack he was using as energy supplements was being stolen.

Then again, Ash shouldn't be surprised as he knew all Genesis members have a certain food they like, Lily in particular was fond of chocolate, but how they always knew someone has gotten hold of their favourite food the moment it was out still remained a mystery, like right now for instance.

"I should have known this was going to happen…" Phillip squeaked.

"Shhh…" Lily said, handfeeding him one chocolate out of pity.

"Well, not talented in defending his snacks or food against Genesis." Ash turned to Pietro, who looked highly amused. "And this floor is private unless you have some food Genesis likes. Then good luck to you."

"So, you finally got the group to come!" Lily said, munching on the chocolate balls while still using Phillip as a chair.

"H-Hello." Phillip awkwardly waved from beneath Lily.

"Well then, Phillip, I'll leave Mr. Polendina to you-"

"Oh, please call me Pietro." Pietro smiled.

"Pietro then. Well, I think Pietro here can help out with the weapon design project-" At the mention, Phillip looked down awkwardly.

"Alright…" Phillip mumbled.

"And I'll see if Ms. Calavera needs help." Ash told him, leaving the two to talk…well, three, but Lily was only there for the chocolates.

When Ash left, Pietro turned to Phillip. "Tell me more about the weapons your members wield, and I'll see what we can come up with."

* * *

When Qrow woke up, he found that he was on a bed, definitely more comfortable than even the beds in Atlas, and that was saying something. How long had he been out, and where the heck was he?

Qrow tried remembering what happened to him, but all he could think of was watching Tyrian stab Clover in front of him with his weapon, Harbinger. How did he get from that tundra to this place anyway? He could almost smell the blood drenching Harbinger, a reminder of how his decision to team up with Tyrian ended up costing a friend's life.

A friend. That was all Clover was.

"Ah," said a man's voice. "You're awake."

Qrow turned sharply to see Shiki leaning against the wall. Next to him was his Espeon.

He was definitely no freelance huntsman that wanders around the kingdoms, as he looked too well-dressed for it, nor was he an Atlesian military officer, for his demeanour was too casual for that.

"Are you alright?" The young man asked him.

"I'm fine." Qrow brushed him off, looking for his weapon, but it was nowhere to be found. He inwardly sighed in relief as at least he did not have to verify whether he killed Clover yet.

"What would you like to drink?" the man asked.

"What?" Qrow gave him a funny look, quite sure he had misheard him.

"I figured having a drink would help you relax to this new, unfamiliar situation." The purple-eyed man replied. "Do you want hot chocolate? Tea? Coffee? Or fruit juice?"

Oh. So that was what he meant by a drink.

"Fine…tea then," said Qrow, inwardly shrugging. The man nodded, and got up to the tiny kitchen in the bedroom to make the drinks. He then carried it to his bed from the kitchen and Qrow saw that the young man also added a plate of iced sugar cookies to the tray. He smiled as he handed one cup over to Qrow.

"Here, drink it before it gets cold, won't you. Well, now, Mr. Branwen…I thought you might have questions. So, ask away." He gave Qrow a reassuring smile.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Qrow asked, taking a cookie and eating it. He noted the cookies were surprisingly delicious, and didn't hesitate to take another.

"My name's Shiki Kurobane." Shiki introduced himself. "As for where you are, you're in a guest room of one of our manors."

"Genesis?" Qrow was puzzled.

"Yes, we just found out a discrepancy in the world map." Shiki replied, drinking the tea. "Take a look at this." Shiki let Qrow look at the current world map, and Qrow's brow furrowed in confusion. There were regions in areas that are supposedly not occupied by any of the Kingdoms.

"But what does that got to do with me being here?" Qrow asked warily.

"Right. I must sincerely apologize for the way I brought you here." Shiki admitted. "You see, when we found out about the world merge and we heard a prophecy, we hacked into Atlas' systems and found out what was going on, and decided we had to find a way to get Ruby Rose and the others to come here, in hopes of an alliance."

"A prophecy?" Qrow was incredulous.

"If you believe in fairy tales, we can believe in prophecies." Shiki retorted.

"Touché." Qrow grinned, liking this boy already, but frowned. "Wait what happened when you brought me here?" He didn't remember passing out when Tyrian killed Clover.

"What do you last remember?" Shiki asked.

Qrow sighed and took a sip of his tea, before telling Shiki what he remembered.

Shiki was a good listener, never interrupting him once. When he finished, Shiki was silent and said, "I think what you're having is a nightmare. Most nightmares seem very real."

"How are you sure it isn't real?" Qrow gave him a suspicious look.

"I was there. I saw what happened." Shiki replied.

"Could you tell me?" Qrow requested, as Shiki got up.

"It'll be better if I show you." Shiki said, taking out a gun, and shooting Qrow on the forehead.

Immediately, memories began flooding Qrow, as he clutched his head to sift the memories suddenly coming to the front of his brain. When he finally did so, he glared at Shiki.

"Wait, you're the one who knocked me out and took me here?" Qrow accused.

"I am." Shiki didn't deny it, placing a hand on Qrow's. "I'm sorry I had to do that, but it was the only way to bring you in quickly. Your emotions were heightened from the argument you had with that brown-haired soldier, Clover. I needed to find a way to get Ruby and the others here, and you were our best bet."

Qrow calmed down at his explanation, as he knew Shiki was telling the truth. Wait, why did he know that?

"We simply want to know everything that is going on in your world, I promise." Shiki placed a hand on his shoulder.

"How would we know that you're not like James?" Qrow was still wary.

"Because we'll answer your questions do, and if there is anything you guys want, we'll do our best to give it to you." Shiki gave Qrow a sincere smile. "Now, just enjoy the cookies and tea, and we can get to the meeting once they arrive. Would you like me to accompany you, or you need some privacy?"

"Well…considering my Semblance, I think it's better you keep a distance." But Qrow wondered why nothing even happened yet, knowing his Semblance would take this time to show itself.

"What Semblance? Nothing happened ever since I was here." Shiki tilted his head.

"My Semblance is misfortune…but it hasn't shown itself yet…" Qrow looked at Shiki.

"I think your group of kids have more than adequately proved that you don't need someone with good luck to spend time near you. You shouldn't let your Semblance thing control what you want to do." Shiki told him.

"I almost harmed Ruby!" Qrow admitted, thinking about his Semblance nearly having the beam falling on her during the first fight with Tyrian. "I left the kids to die…" He remembered the time he saw the Apathy, as Shiki patted his shoulder to calm him down, unfazed.

"Hey, it's alright. It's all in the past. What matters is the present." Shiki assured him.

"What do you know?" Qrow snapped, narrowing his eyes in suspicion at Shiki.

"I know that the kids care enough to come for you." Shiki replied, smiling. "They risked letting Atlas follow them just to come and get you. Actually, they came by while you were unconscious, to check up on you. Ash has directed them to their rooms for a shower and change of clothes before lunch. I am sure they'll be here once they are done."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Qrow gave Shiki another look.

"You didn't ask." Shiki shrugged. "Tell you what. Let's play a video game, take your mind off things."

"Sure…you think you can win?" Qrow raised a brow, as he took a controller Shiki offered.

"I'm quite the talent at a lot of things, including games." Shiki replied, as he set up the video console. "What game do you want to play?"

Qrow was astounded at the collection of games they had, as he browsed through the list of games available, and picked a fighting game: Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, while reading the manual for the possible combos and buttons to execute a certain move from the manual.

"You'll never beat me, boy." Qrow smirked at him, as he and Shiki were mashing buttons for their characters to fight. Shiki was on his last character, Phoenix Wright while Qrow had all three left.

"I hope you're not just talk, Qrow." Shiki calmly replied, before Phoenix Wright wiped his health out, before Turnabout Mode wore off. Shiki then quickly collected evidence during the time it took for Vergil to faint while Dante, the next character, jumped in.

However, Shiki already collected all three evidence, landed an Objection, activating his Turnabout Mode once again.

"What the?" Qrow was surprised as Shiki started to literally wipe the floor with him character once again. During the time Dante fainted, Shiki shot out energy balls that floated in mid-air, and shot at the character coming in, which was ironically called Phoenix.

"I'm not done yet!" Qrow grinned as Phoenix went Dark Phoenix due to the Hyper Combo Gauge being at Max Level, and shot two balls of fire at Phoenix Wright, who jumped to dodge it.

Shiki frowned as he kept guarding against the relentless attack, only to use his own Level 3 Hyper Combo when he took enough damage, and Qrow was like, "What?" when Phoenix Wright played the cutscene of his Level 3 Hyper Combo, essentially wiping out her entire health. Shiki grinned at his victory as Qrow looked on in shock, not seeing this coming.

"**Ouch." **Espeon remarked, but only Shiki understood him.

"I call this a turnabout victory." Shiki smiled.

"Just shut up and set the re-match." Qrow grumbled. "You were letting me kill your characters on purpose."

"Is there a problem?" Shiki asked.

"Don't do it." Qrow frowned.

"Alright, alright." Shiki nodded. "So, you were telling me about the partner Ironwood assigned, that Clover guy? What's he like?"

"Right, uh…he has good fortune as his Semblance, and like you, he told me that I shouldn't let my Semblance define me." Qrow answered. "He told me I was a good role model for my nieces, and not to deflect compliments."

"I'll admit he was right to tell you that." Shiki told him. "But for me, I'd tell you to look at it this way; you never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you and others from."

"What do you mean?" Qrow started mashing buttons, trying to defeat Shiki, but Shiki seemed to be this one unbeatable boss you see in most video games.

"Well, I think you aren't always a bad luck charm." Shiki answered. "I can think of a few instances."

"Like…?" Qrow inwardly grumbled as the low health of his first character, while Shiki's wasn't even hit.

"Like for instance, if you weren't there on the day Tyrian attacked Ruby, she wouldn't be here with you. She was lucky you were there to protect her." Shiki replied.

Qrow blinked, before smiling and looking sideways.

"You should smile more often. You do have a nice smile." Shiki told him, just as the game announcer calling out "K.O.! Perfect!" in Shiki's favour.

"You are the worst!" Qrow said, but without any bite.

"You did tell me not to purposely lose two characters." Shiki reminded him, as Espeon snickered.

Qrow had an inkling feeling they were being watched, and looked around, catching five girls from different hiding places gazing at them intently, specifically Shiki and by the looks on their faces, it was a case of stalkers with a crush.

"I know." Shiki said before Qrow could open his mouth to ask.

"Don't mind them, they stalk Shiki all the time." Ash said, coming into the room and sitting on the bed.

"What took you so long?" Shiki asked.

"Well, I had to entertain the old lady and the old man in a moving chair." Ash scratched his cheek.

"You mean Maria and Pietro?" Qrow looked at Ash.

"Yeah. Pietro seemed very interested in technological projects, so I directed him to Phillip. I checked on Ms. Calavera after that, but she was already chatting with Paku." Ash said, just as Ruby burst into the room, all refreshed and dressed in a black blouse and red skirt.

"Uncle Qrow! Are you alright?" Ruby pounced on her uncle, causing him to drop the controller.

"Of course I'm fine, kiddo." Qrow ruffled her hair. "Shiki took good care of me."

"Do you want to play, Ruby?" Shiki offered his controller, and Ruby's eyes sparkled at the game they were playing. She used her Semblance to grab the controller and take Shiki's spot, whereas Shiki managed to jump out of the way in time to prevent being knocked to the wall by Ruby, who was already selecting the characters for the next round. Yang walked in as well, all dressed in a yellow shirt and black pants and stood next to Ash, smiling fondly yet tiredly at Ruby and Qrow playing together.

"It's still unbelievable that less than 24 hours ago, we were trying to escape from Ironwood." Yang admitted to Ash when Ash gave her a look of concern.

"I supposed because all of you are tired, you're all taking a nap?" Shiki asked.

Yang nodded. "Ruby and I thought we should check on Uncle Qrow first, but he seems to be in good hands." She indicated Ruby and Qrow playing games together, and stifled a yawn behind her prosthetic hand.

"Bed," said an undeceived Shiki at once. "Don't worry, we'll wake you up for lunch."

"But…" Yang looked at the hidden five girls uneasily.

Ash said, "Don't worry. It's not Ruby and Qrow they are after. It's him." Ash indicated Shiki, and dragged Yang out of the room. Yang was too surprised to resist, and when they were out, Ash lowered his voice in a whisper as they walked back to her room. "They are in love with him, but for some reason, he hadn't addressed it yet. No one really knows why."

"I see." Yang nodded.

"Between you and me, something isn't right with Shiki. I'm not saying he's a traitor or has his own agenda, but-" Ash was cut off when something rumbled, and a woman screaming, "Why, you little-!" followed by an expletive that would certainly get an Atlesian soldier kicked out of the military.

"Please excuse me." Ash muttered, as they reached Yang and Blake's room. "I got to handle this." He apologized to Yang and rushed off to the source of the scream, leaving Yang to wonder what Ash wanted to say.

'Perhaps lunchtime would bring us our answers.' Yang thought, getting into the other side of the bed she was sharing with Blake, who was sleeping peacefully.

Meanwhile, Ash went down to the dungeons, where they usually kept their prisoners. Whatever noise he heard from down there was gone by the time he reached, so he assumed that someone else must have taken care of it. He decided to visit the latest prisoner that Anna had brought in. The latest prisoner in question had chains on her hands and feet and they were attached to the wall.

Ash grimly noted that the prisoner wasn't just any thuggish-looking person, but rather what looked like a young girl, with pink, brown and white colour scheme. She would fit in a bright and cheerful environment such as the ice cream parlour rather than this dingy, gloomy and foreboding prison.

The girl's clothes were matted with blood and it was clear her Aura didn't do a very good job of fixing her broken nose or her broken arms. It was also apparent she had witnessed the other prisoners being tortured by one of the members from the trembling.

Neopolitan looked up sharply when Ash entered, and turned away.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to harm you." Ash assured her. Neopolitan looked back at him, and huffed silently, as Ash approached.

He conjured up a chain with a cross at the end from his thumb, and wrapped them around her arm, healing her broken arm in an instant. Neopolitan looked surprised as Ash began to work on her other arm and then her nose.

"Would you answer my questions now?" Ash asked. Before Neopolitan could tell him she can't talk, Ash said, "I know you can't. Just think of your answer, and I can read your mind. We'll communicate through telepathy."

Neopolitan nodded, as Ash asked, "Alright, first thing's first…what Is your name?"

'Neopolitan.' Neopolitan replied in her head.

"Nice name, Neopolitan…mind if I call you Neo?" Ash enquired. "It's easier to pronounce."

'If you want. Roman and Cinder call me that.' Neopolitan answered, not really caring at this point. After all, Ash is the jailor and she the prisoner.

"Hmm…why did you go after the Relic?" Ash questioned.

'Cinder told me to. I wanted revenge on Ruby and she said I would get it after I get the Relic.' Neopolitan mentally shrugged. 'Although I really don't like her ego.'

"Why do you want revenge on Ruby?" Ash was suspicious.

'She killed Roman.' Neopolitan gritted her teeth.

"Who told you that?" Ash frowned.

'Cinder.' Neopolitan sighed inwardly.

"Did she actually see Ruby kill Roman?" Ash's tone was solemn.

Neopolitan paused, and shook her head.

"Maybe you should ask this Roman guy who killed him." Ash told Neopolitan. "I don't think this Cinder woman was telling the truth."

'How?' Neopolitan knew you can't exactly ask the dead anything.

"I have a friend who can channel spirits, allowing the living to communicate with the dead." Ash offered. "If you want, I can get her to channel this Roman guy and you can talk to him. Give you closure and all."

Neopolitan's eyes shined at the prospect. An opportunity to talk to her only friend in her entire life and find out just who killed him so she knew just who to exact revenge on? Getting to see him again? She was definitely in.

'But how would I know you're not lying?' Neopolitan asked Ash.

"Our Aura is different, Neo." Ash answered crystal to prove his point. "We're not like you, who only have Semblances."

Neopolitan was awed, as Ash went on, "I'll bring you your lunch later. Right now, I'm going to meet up with the group. I promise I'll get in contact with the spirit medium and get her to do the channelling."

As Ash left, he saw Neopolitan with a thoughtful look on her face, trying to digest what Ash had told her.

By the time Ash returned, lunch was finally ready as everyone scrambled to get seats, while Pakura herself set the tables and the dishes she had cooked.

"If I were you, I would quickly grab all that I want." Ash said to Ruby, as he sat down next to her.

"Why?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Take my word for it." Ash grimaced, having had his fair share of Genesis people eating all the food before he could even get to it just because he was a little late at getting to the table during meal times.

Lunch came in courses. A thick carrot soup, green salad with blue cheese, roast beef and mashed potatoes, little birds with orange sauce, with wild rice and watercress, chocolate custard dotted with cherries.

During the meal, Ruby realized what Ash meant by grabbing all that they wanted. It was because certain people would grab almost everything at once and gobble them up. She realized that lunch was extremely delicious, better than anything she had tasted in her life.

"Now that we're eating, could we have some introductions?" Blake spoke up.

"I'll start." Ash volunteered. "If you guys don't know me already, I'm Ashura Red Satoshi Ketchum, better known as Ash Ketchum. I'm the current Champion of the PAL Region."

"I'm Shiki Kurobane." The guy who was with Qrow introduced himself. "I'm the current Prince of the PAL Region and the Elite Leader."

"I'm Pakura Ameyuri." The girl who Penny had recognized waved. "I'm a member of the PAL Elite."

"I-I'm P-Phillip R-Robinson, I'm a-also a member of the PAL Elite." A boy with combed down brown hair and baby blue eyes smiled shyly. Maria and Pietro shook their heads at his awkwardness.

"Yo! I'm Jude Harrison. I'm also a PAL Elite member." A boy with black hair with bangs swept to one side and amber eyes grinned cheerfully.

"I'm Alexis Zhao. Genesis Champion." A girl with slightly messy long black hair and cold grey eyes answered. Something about her seemed unsettling to Ruby's group. Qrow inwardly wondered how Shiki felt having someone like her stalk him.

"I'm Ariella Zhao. Genesis Elite, and Lexi's twin." A girl who looked identical to Alexis gave a warm smile. She at least did not seem as distant as her twin. Qrow, on the other hand thought she was just like her sister.

"I'm Nevryn Zhao. Genesis Elite, and little brother to those two." A boy with messy black hair, same grey eyes and a horizontal scar at the left cheek nodded.

"Anna Guth. Genesis Elite, and leader of the organization Quarantine." A woman with brown-blonde ponytail and platinate blue eyes said. Weiss was reminded of her sister Winter with that demeanour. Qrow, on the other hand, wondered if Shiki knew that Anna was stalking him.

"I'm Lily Makoto. Genesis Elite, and aspiring fashion model!" A young woman with platinum blonde hair, scarlet eyes and what looked like fake fangs in her mouth smiled prettily.

"I'm Randolph Yurovich. Gym Leader!" A muscular man with tawny eyes and dirty blonde hair grinned. "Sorry for ruining the kitchen. Otherwise, you would have lunch earlier." The tone indicated it was a common occurrence and he apparently made no effort to change himself.

'That's nothing to be proud about.' Everyone from RWBY and JNR thought. At that moment, they knew who was the idiot of their group.

"Ilia Moirai. Gym Leader and Crown Princess of Genesis." Ilia was beautiful, but in a different way than Pakura. Ilia was very blonde and had chocolate brown eyes.

'A Princess, stalking a guy? I feel for Shiki.' Qrow shuddered, as he had seen her hiding and spying on Shiki earlier as well.

"Ray Marx. Gym Leader." A feminine-looking guy with white hair and dark pastel green eyes nodded, narrowing his eyes at the group. Something about him seemed harsh, like he was critical of most things.

"Shura Song. Gym Leader and the medic of the group. At least in Genesis, anyway." A boy with dark grey hair and brown eyes and a doctor's coat folded his arms.

"And arrogant." Yang whispered to Ruby, who stifled a laugh. "Sorry, Ash."

"You're not wrong." Ash waved it off.

"Shion Song. Twin sister to Shura and Gym Leader as well." A girl with page-style hair and brown eyes waved.

'She seems nicer than her brother, at least.' Jaune thought.

"Kira Valentine. Gym Leader. I hope we have fun together." A woman with red hair and gold eyes gave a Yang-like smirk. Qrow groaned, knowing she was one of the other stalkers he saw spying on Shiki.

'Hopefully it isn't another Yang.' Weiss sweatdropped. One was enough.

"Sara Lannister! Sara is a Gym Leader!" A girl with pink hair and azure eyes piped up enthusiastically.

"Oooh, I like her." Nora grinned manically.

"Yay!" Sara cheered when she heard that.

'Does she have brain damage?' Blake wondered inwardly.

As if he read her mind, Ash answered, "Actually, yes. She had an accident when she was around five, and it damaged her brain. It affected her cognitive development. The accident killed both her parents, so she was sent to live with her uncle."

"Ouch…that's sad." Blake looked down.

"It's alright." Ash gave a reassuring smile. "No offense taken."

"Logan Zhivago. Gym Leader." A guy with tanned skin, avocado green eyes and spiky black hair didn't crack a smile. However, he wasn't exactly unfriendly with his introduction either.

"Now that you know us, who are you?" Anna went straight to the point.

"I'm Ruby Rose!" Ruby introduced herself. "Huntress and ready to save the world!"

"Weiss Schnee." Weiss relaxed. "I am going to make a name for myself without relying on family."

"Blake Belladonna." Blake said shortly.

"Yang Xiao Long, at your service!" Yang pumped a fist up. "I will do what it takes to protect those I love!"

"Jaune Arc. I aim to do what's right." Jaune placed a fist over his heart.

"Nora Valkyrie!" Nora grinned. "Ready to take on the world!"

"Lie Ren." Ren introduced calmly. Apparently, he was one of the more sensible ones, or so Ash and the others think.

"Salutations! I'm Penny Polendina." Penny saluted.

"Maria Calavera. I'm just an old lady dragged along for the ride." Maria sighed.

"Pietro Polendina." Pietro said to the group. "Where my daughter goes, I go."

"Qrow Branwen." Qrow folded his arms, and looked away. "Resident bad luck charm." However, he wondered why his Semblance hadn't manifested itself once throughout the meal. He took a look at Shiki, who was next to him.

Shiki was nibbling on his custard, and gave a knowing smile upon seeing his look.

"Here's how it's going to work. Your group and my group are going to take turn to ask questions. One of us from the other group would answer to the best we can. Would it help?" Anna asked Ruby and her group.

Ruby exchanged glances with her teammates and JNR, before saying, "It sounds fine by us."

"Then we shall decide who gets to ask first by flipping a coin." Anna said, taking out a coin. "Heads or tails?"

"Heads." Ruby stated. Anna flipped the coin and caught it at the back of her palm.

"Well, then. It looks like it's heads. You can ask first." Anna gestured to Ruby's group.

"Where are we?" Ruby asked.

"You're in the Genesis Region. No, it's not a Kingdom." Phillip answered. "We have quite a lot of regions: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, Galar, Genesis and PAL…so far, anyway."

"One of these is not like the others." Yang remarked.

"Our turn to ask. What is this, exactly?" Ash held up the Relic of Knowledge.

Blake nodded, as if to tell Ruby, 'We'll follow your lead.' Before they could say anything however, Pakura spoke up.

"Don't even think about lying. We'll know if you lie or omit something." Pakura warned.

Ruby gulped. She knew what happened the last time they lied, or omitted some parts of information. They ended up being on the Wanted list after the alliance fell apart, leading to the situation in Atlas.

"The situation now is dire. I need you all to trust us, then we can work together to form a plan." Ash pleaded.

Silver met brown. Could she actually trust Ash hadn't had any ill intention? However, when she looked into Ash's eyes, he was sincere, unflinching. Yet, there was a look similar to a veteran, like the rest of them.

Ruby decided to tell them and see where it goes. "This is called The Relic of Knowledge. It is one of the four Relics given by The Gods." At the word Gods, everyone bar Ruby's Group looked at each other. "It has the power to summon Jinn, who can answer three questions every one hundred years."

"So, like a genie who grants three wishes, but they are questions?" Sara was puzzled, trying to wrap her head around it.

"Something like that…?" Qrow shrugged.

"Your turn to ask." Ash offered.

"How does each region work?" Blake questioned. "Like their system of government and stuff?" She felt if she knew how the regions work, it would prove to be better for them when it comes to making alliances from those from that sector.

"Alright, if you want to know, why don't we teach a lesson on politics after lunch?" Jude offered. "It's really very long to explain."

"Sounds fine by me." Ruby nodded.

* * *

However, some may soon regret it, as they found themselves in a lecture hall after lunch. After all, it has been a long while since they last sat in on a lesson, briefings in Atlas not counting. The chairs were also too comfy, and they could fall asleep on the chair if they tried hard enough. The lecture hall was great as there was a closet that provided all sorts of school supplies.

"Until you get your own laptops or tablets, you just have to take notes old-school style. If you wish to take notes. Or take pictures with your phones. Whatever floats your boat." Ash shrugged.

The electronic boards were displaying the people Shiki was mentioning, such as the Gym Leaders, Elite Fours and Champions from other regions, along with what they call Pokémon.

"In each region, we have something called the Pokémon League. The Pokémon League is the goal of every Pokémon Trainer. The standard Pokémon League is made up of eight Gym Leaders, four Elite Four members and one Champion." Shiki started, showing a hierarchy of the eight Gym Leaders at the bottom layer, four Elite fours at the middle and one Champion with a crown at the top pyramid.

"A Gym Leader is the highest-ranking member of a Pokémon Gym. The main job of a Gym Leader is to test Trainers and their Pokémon so that they are strong and resourceful enough to take the Pokémon League challenge." Shiki lectured, zooming into the bottom layer.

The members of RWBY, JNR and Penny, seated on the front row, were in varying stages of interest; Blake, Yang, Jaune and Nora were sitting up and paying attention, Weiss and Ren were taking notes, and Penny were trying not to bounce out of their seats. Ruby had an elbow on her hand, paying rapt attention, but knew her attention was slipping. After all, listening to lectures were not exactly her forte.

"When you defeat a Gym Leader, you get a Gym Badge. What they call their Badge varies among Gym Leaders. Trainers need to collect eight Gym Badges in order to qualify for a region's Pokémon League, so to speak." Shiki went on.

'Gym Badges, hmm?' Ruby thought, as Shiki showed them different Gym Badges at the board.

"Oooh, that's a pretty one! Can they be worn?" Nora asked, as the Soul Badge was shown. Everyone looked at her strangely as Shiki replied, "Yes, they can. If you want it, you can ask Janine to give one to you, Ms. Valkyrie."

"Moving on: After collecting eight Badges, everyone trains to participate in the Pokémon Conference, or tournament. Whoever wins gets to challenge the Elite Four and the Champion…"

To Ruby, his words faded into the background as she pencilled the paper in front of her. In reality, she was drawing the badges she saw on the screen with the terms, "Eight Gym Leaders, Four Elite Four members and one Champion."

'This is going to be a long...very long…lesson.' Ruby thought, pencil slipping from her grip.

"Ruby!" Penny was next to her, and she jolted awake.

"I just wanted to say how happy I am to be able to take lessons like a normal person. With you all. As friends!"

"Ms. Polendina. As much as I am happy for you, please save it for after the lesson." Shiki admonished lightly. "After all, no talking in class."

"Oh, sorry, Mr. Kurobane." Penny apologized.

"Shiki would do." Shiki shook his head, continuing with the lesson, moving on to the exceptions to the "Eight Gym Leaders, Four Elite Four members and one Champion." rule

Meanwhile, a different kind of lecture was given in Atlas when Ironwood had learnt what happened. He was pacing up and down, with Winter and the other Ace-Ops watching him worriedly. After all, the plan to use the Staff to rise Atlas were outright stopped, and himself and his army were left exhausted.

"We've been compromised. The Staff and the Lamp are out of our reach, our soldiers in the academy were badly beaten and…" Ironwood muttered. "Winter, when you said the power was gone, what do you mean? Did it go to Cinder?" He turned to his most trusted right-hand woman.

"No, sir. Someone else got it." Winter replied calmly.

"WHO?" He bellowed, making all but Clover and Winter flinch. "Tell me. Now."

"A girl. I-I don't know her. I never seen her before." Winter's calm demeanour shook a little.

"What does she look like?" Ironwood asked, calm but inwardly extremely furious.

"She had long black hair and amethyst eyes." Winter inwardly grimaced at having to throw the girl under the bus. The alternative was Penny after all, and it would endanger her little sister. She was confident that the girl would handle herself, since she did kill Cinder.

'Amethyst eyes?' Clover remembered the boy with glasses and purple eyes at the mention of it.

"Make a sketch of the girl, and put her on the list. She couldn't have gone far." Ironwood ordered. "Winter, if you find her, I want you to take the Winter Maiden's power from her."

"Yes, sir." Winter saluted.

"They are likely in Mantle by now. You!" He barked to the Ace-Ops. "Patrol Mantle until you weed them out. Do whatever it takes to lure them out."

"Yes, sir!" They said in unison.

"Clover? Good job in killing Tyrian." Ironwood allowed a smile on his face.

However, Clover looked somewhat disturbed, as he remembered the smirk the young man had on his face when he easily overpowered him. He was sure he was the one who killed Tyrian while no one was looking.

When everyone left to their respective tasks, Ironwood received an alert from one of the soldiers, regarding the world map. He brought out his Scroll and checked something, only to widen his eyes. What changed wasn't just the timeline.

It was the world.

**BP: I have a rough plot going, but as I said, I never watched RWBY, so it's Wikia I am looking at. Sorry if it was OOC and all. Reading the Wikia, Ruby didn't exactly strike me as the type to be great with listening to lessons. I also believe they get the time to relax now. **

**Sure, she does study, but just because you're good at studying doesn't exactly mean you're good with listening to lectures/taking notes. **

**I am not sure what to do with Neopolitan as of this chapter, do let me know what you want Ash to do with her after Neo gets her closure for Roman's death. Next chapter would be when they formally make their alliance and possibly make a plan to rescue Oscar. **

**However, I may have the RWBY side to sit this one out, since they need to rest after all that had happened to them in Volume 7, so only those from Quarantine (the term coined for Genesis/PAL ppl) would go. **

**Out of the characters introduced that is not from RWBY, only Jude, Pakura, Phillip and Shiki are mine. The rest belong to N. Aepic Fael. **

**Pairings, I am still unsure. Remember to check out my other stories, and vote in the current poll. Any questions, just let me know in PM and I'll answer.**

**Do review, favourite and follow!**


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